Night, Day, Frozen
by Element-103
Summary: When Celestia and Luna fall under Discord's control, Equestria becomes a harsh land that suffers eternal night on one side and eternal day on the other. In no time at all, the old ways of life cease to exist as new rules take hold. But the worst part of it all? Discord's not even the enemy closest to home. A post-apocalyptic story, rated T for some violence and blood.
1. Chapter 1: Return of Chaos

**I am not the owner of the My Little Pony franchise.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Princess Luna stood alone on a balcony of the Royal Castle, admiring the view of nighttime Equestria. The moon and stars had been raised by her just minutes ago, and she never tired of watching the land slowly fade into darkness and lanterns being turned on one by one, dotting the towns and cities with spots of light. Her older sister, Princess Celestia, was inside the Castle, sleeping in preparation for the next day.

A flash of blackness in the corner of Luna's eye drew her attention. She turned to her left, but whatever was there had vanished. Puzzled, she walked over to the edge of the balcony and looked over the railing, thinking that the thing she had seen had gone below.

Then the object exploded into view, startling Luna and causing her to frantically backpedal. It was a stream of darkness unlike anything the princess had ever seen before. Not even the night or her coat was as black as this thing. Even more shocking, the pitch-black entity began to shift and morph before her eyes, signifying that it was a living creature! Before long, the morphing was finished, and the finished form slammed down onto the balcony with a mighty thud. It stood up, cracked its neck and gave an evil smile at the (still stunned) Luna.

"Hello, Luna," Discord said.

"Discord!" Luna gasped. "What…How did you escape the spell?"

"Spell? What spell? Oh, you mean the spell of the Elements of Harmony that turned me to stone?" The draconequus laughed. "Did you really think I would be dumb enough to just sit back and let those six ridiculous ponies beat me?" Discord began advancing on Luna as he talked. "True, I turned to stone, but not because of the Elements. I was the one who cast the spell so I could trick you all into thinking that you beat me. And it looks like I succeeded."

"You stay back!" Luna began charging her horn to unleash a deadly bolt of lightning at Discord. But right before she fired, the villain turned back into his fluid form and quickly darted away. Luna's shot went wide, rocketing into the night.

"Try harder, _little _princess," Discord's voice mocked her from behind.

Luna spun around and fired again, gritting her teeth in anger. But Discord had once again dodged out of the way. It was only then that the princess realized that it would be much easier to fight Discord with her older sister on her side.

"Celestia!" she shouted as she went for the balcony doors. Unfortunately for her, Discord had anticipated this and slammed the doors shut, turning them into metal as well. Luna painfully smacked into them, the impact knocking her to the floor of the balcony and giving her a massive headache.

Discord materialized above her with a concerned look on his face. "Oh no! Did our poor little Luna hurt herself?" He sighed. "Don't worry. Uncle Discord here will fix you up in no time." He grinned as he pinned the squirming Luna down with his left hand and began moving his right towards her head. Her screams for Celestia ended upon contact.

* * *

"Luna!" Celestia called as she frantically galloped along the hallway towards Luna's screams. "Luna, hang on!"

Her sister's cries suddenly broke off. With a sound no longer present to signify her location, Celestia whipped her head from side to side, trying to guess where she was. Was she already too late?

_The balcony! _Celestia thought. Her sister was probably out there performing her nightly ritual of watching the night set in. At least, she had been until something terrible had happened to her. Celestia rushed off to the left, using her magic to open the balcony doors before her. Overwhelming relief filled her when she saw the dark outline of her sister against the backdrop of the stars and moon.

"Luna! Oh, thank goodness you're…" A bolt of lightning and crack of thunder roared across the sky as the mare on the balcony turned to face Celestia. In that brief flash of light, a shocking image presented itself to the princess. The mare was not Luna; it was Nightmare Moon!

"Surprised to see me, sister?"

"What are you doing?" a confused Celestia asked.

"Why, just preparing to bring eternal night to Equestria," her sister replied before letting loose an evil laugh. Celestia nervously chuckled, thinking that this was just a poor practical joke. Then a sharp spasm of pain unlike anything she had experienced before rocked her body to the very core. She collapsed to the ground, convulsing and jerking uncontrollably. Her breathing was short and ragged, and an attempt to call for help from her sister only produced retching and gagging. By the time the void of unconsciousness set in, Celestia welcomed it. Anything was better than this horrible pain.

* * *

"The screams stopped a full five minutes ago. We must hurry and make sure Her Highnesses are safe!" the head of the Royal Guards barked as his comrades continued trying to break down the doors.

"I…don't…remember these…doors being…so strong!" a Guard said between grunts of effort.

"Keep pushing!" the head of the Guards ordered. Finally, the doors burst open. The Guards tumbled in ready to battle any threat and intruder.

"Look! There's Her Highness Celestia!" A Guard pointed. Celestia was hovering in mid-air with her eyelids closed. Then the princess opened them to reveal blood-red glowing eyes. Before any of the Guards could react, Celestia unleashed a deadly red bolt of lightning from her horn which slammed into an Earth Guard, killing him instantly.

The Guards were shocked. Here was their princess, the mare they had sworn to protect, attacking them! Battle plans were ignored as they tried to put together a haphazard attack on this completely unexpected threat. Unfortunately, there was no coordination whatsoever, as all order among the Royal Guards had disintegrated with their fallen comrade. It was every stallion for himself.

Some Pegasus Guards attempted to launch an aerial assault and knock Celestia out of the sky, thereby making her open to attacks by Earth Guards. But none of them could get within twenty meters of the princess before falling victim to a deadly bolt of lightning. They were certainly courageous, though; even as Guard after Guard fell, they kept up the pressure.

The Unicorn Guards decided to return fire with lightning of their own. A shootout ensued, bolts of deadly energy zinging back and forth. A shot by one Guard hit Celestia's wing, knocking it out of action and forcing her to descend to the ground. She could still use magic, though. The Guard that had fired the lucky shot did a barrel roll in mid-air from the lethal energy that zapped him.

Seeing their chance, the Earth Guards launched a charge at the downed princess. But a surprise was in store for them. Nightmare Moon swooped down from the roof from where she had hid from sight. Attacking from behind, she grabbed a Guard and snatched him into the air, his cries for assistance floating behind him. With this new threat, the Guards were finished. It took only minutes for them to lay dead in pools of blood.

Discord in Celestia's possessed body smiled. True, his wing had been damaged, but it would be healed in no time with the incredible reserves of Celestia's magic now at his disposal. Even better, with both princesses in his power, there was nothing to stop him from controlling the most important aspects of Equestria: the day and night.

He began the healing process on his wing. Soon, the greatest plan for eternal chaos would be reality.


	2. Chapter 2: End of the World

**Chapter 2**

"Aaauuuggghhh!"

The scream made Twilight and Spike look up from their work. They could hear more cries of terror by the second. The cacophony also included doors and windows being slammed shut, and when Twilight glanced through the window, she could see a bunch of ponies running as fast as they could in no specific direction.

_What's going on?_ Twilight thought to herself as she began walking to the door. The unicorn wanted to go outside and see for herself just what was scaring everypony. But before she reached it, a light more bright and intense than anything she had ever seen blinded her. She gave a cry of pain and instinctively raised a hoof to shield her eyes, even though they had already snapped shut the instant the light had reached them. A second later, a massive explosion shook the very ground beneath her, toppling Twilight to the floor of the library. The fearsome rumbling was so loud that it blocked out everything in her head and threatened to burst her eardrums with the immense strain. She covered her ears with her hooves, but it was a pathetically inadequate counter.

When the horrendous sound finally vanished, Twilight picked herself off the floor half-blind and half-deaf. Beside her, Spike did the same. He said something to her, but her hearing was still muddled. She shook her head to let Spike know that she didn't get his message. He made a second attempt, and this time his words broke through.

"What do you think _that _was?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Spike," Twilight replied as she began heading towards the door (again). "But we're going to find out."

"Wait!" Spike called out. He pointed down at the floor underneath Twilight. She looked down and found herself about to step on razor-sharp shards of glass. Taking a closer look at her surroundings, she found that every single window in the library had been smashed and the majority of the books had fallen off the shelves. The room would be cleaned up later; they had to find out what had happened first.

Twilight stepped outside. Her first thought was: _Why is it darker?_ Before the mysterious light and explosion, Ponyville was basking in all of the glorious sunlight that came with the middle of the day. Now the lighting had diminished to a feeble glow more suited to dusk than noon.

Thinking that maybe she and Spike had unknowingly passed out during the rumbling and spent the afternoon unconscious, Twilight looked up at the sky to see where the sun was. Her jaw dropped open as she struggled to process what she was seeing. Every fiber of logic and reasoning in her body told her that she was dreaming, that this was all a hallucination. But no matter how many times she blinked or looked away and back, the sight was still there.

Spike came out of the library. "Hey Twilight! Did you find…" His sentence drifted off, incomplete, as he looked at what had Twilight in a daze.

The sun and the moon had melded together! The left side of the new orb had the moon's face, while the right had the sun's. The two were separated by a squiggly border in the middle. Not only that, but the sky had separated as well. On the side of the moon, there was black night. On the side of the sun, there was bright day. In the middle, though, the sky was sunset-orange.

"It's horrible!" a pony cried out. "That…that…thing! That horrible thing!"

"How could this happen?" another shouted. "This is impossible!" Other ponies voiced their questions and fears.

"It's the end of the world!"

"What's going to happen now?"

"We're doomed!"

"I thought Princesses Celestia and Luna were in charge of the sun and moon!"

That snapped Twilight out of her stupor. "Princess Celestia! Spike, send a letter to her saying that I'm going to be at the Royal Castle soon. She should know how this happened."

"Right away!" The baby dragon hurried back inside the library to carry out his assignment as Twilight began her run to Canterlot. As she galloped through Ponyville, she witnessed the other residents either engaged in fierce conversation or staring blankly into space, cracked from the stress of the past few minutes. The mood was one of tension, suspicion and fear. No one extended any greetings to the lavender pony rushing past them. Passing by Town Hall, she saw that Mayor Mare was trying to calm a crowd of ponies that had gathered (it wasn't working). The gloomy lighting didn't help lift anyone's spirits either.

_I hope my friends are okay,_ Twilight thought. She was most worried about Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was self-explanatory, but Rainbow Dash was in Cloudsdale at the moment. Anything could have happened to the city in the sky and Ponyville wouldn't hear about it for days. If there was one thing Twilight hated the most, it was lack of information.

At the edge of the town outskirts, she ran into the border that separated dusk from day. It was actually a black barrier that abruptly rose up in her path. A bit hesistantly, Twilight reached a hoof out to touch it. It went straight through, to her surprise. She was willing to bet that on the other side of town there was a similar barrier that seperated dusk from night.

Twilight walked through the division, which felt like turning on a light in a darkened room. Her eyes blinked rapidly as they adjusted to the sudden change. It then struck her that something looked odd about Canterlot in the distance. Maybe it was just her imagination, but the city looked slightly…lopsided.

As the unicorn watched, the entire city suddenly jerked downward, causing a tower to topple and begin a long free-fall to the ground. Another jerk caused an entire section of Canterlot to detach itself from the rest, crumbling to its doom. The city desperately tried to keep its hold on the mountain, but gravity triumphed in the end. With a final crack of rock and stone breaking, the capital of Equestria slid down the mountain, dashing itself to pieces before landing on the ground in a cascade of debris.

It was all too much for the horrified Twilight. With a soft sigh, she fainted.


	3. Chapter 3: Back Together

**Chapter 3**

Twilight was in a room somewhere. It was a small room, with the walls, roof and floor painted white. There were no windows, furniture, or decorations of any kind. There was only a single door, which she walked over to and pushed open. It revealed the Main Hall of the Royal Castle filled with ponies. The strangest thing was that they were all staring at Twilight as if they had expected her arrival.

"_Twiiillliiight…"_

Continuing their staring, everypony then began a slow shuffle towards the unicorn. Twilight was thoroughly freaked out. She backed away and turned around, planning to return to the room where she had started from, but found that the door and wall had disappeared. In fact, everything behind her had disappeared, including the ground, which meant that she was standing on the edge of a cliff.

"Twilight?"

She looked up. Princess Celestia was above her with a concerned look on her face. Twilight opened her mouth to ask for help, but nothing came out. She tried again with the same result. Celestia shook her head and flew off, taking with her Twilight's only hope for escape. The crowd continued advancing on her, determined to force her off the precipice and begin a long, long fall to whatever lay below…

"TWILIGHT!"

"Huaugh!" Twilight gave a garbled noise as she bolted up from the grass and her nightmare, but a hoof was gently laid on her shoulder and a familiar voice said "Calm down, sugarcube. You're all right now."

"Try saying that about me," Spike complained. He rubbed his side where Twilight had accidentally hit him when she woke up. The sight of him and her other friends – Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity – filled Twilight with relief.

"Oh, I'm so glad you girls are okay!" she said as she hugged them. "What happened while I was out?"

Spike began. "I tried sending a letter to Princess Celestia like you asked me to, but it kept on getting delivered back to me. So then I gave up and went outside to try and catch up to you and tell you about it."

"We four were at Town Hall with everypony else to listen to what the Mayor had to say about the dreadful events," Rarity took over. "Spike saw and informed us of his situation, so naturally we decided to accompany him."

"And then we ran into that big black wall and everypony else thought we couldn't go through it but I said 'Don't be silly, a wall can't just appear out of thin air!' So then I hopped through and they followed and we found you and woke you up and here we are!" Pinkie Pie finished in her trademark hyperactive style.

"Funny thing is, I can't see Canterlot at all," Applejack pointed. "It's like it jus' disappeared."

Twilight's mood came crashing down as she remembered what she saw. "It has. That's why I fainted…I saw Canterlot fall off…fall off the mountain. It's gone," she said in a quiet voice.

Stunned silence fell. "But…but how?" Fluttershy said, echoing everyone's thoughts.

"I don't know," Twilight moaned. "Maybe it has something to do with the sun and moon mixing together. We don't know why that happened either."

More silence followed as they all struggled to think of something to say. Twilight instinctively looked up at the sun to see what the time was, but then remembered that the age-old method was now useless. Yet another thing of life that was now gone.

Applejack shook her head. "Come on, y'all. Let's get back to Ponyville and talk there."

The others agreed. Twilight levitated Spike onto her back, and the group departed. The barrier on this side of the border was blue instead of black. Once over it, they had to wait a few seconds for their eyes to readjust to the gloomy twilight that Ponyville was cast in.

The crowd that was in front of Town Hall had disappeared, along with most of the other residents of the community. It was eerily empty – Twilight was reminded of the time when Zecora first visited Ponyville. At least there were lights which fought off some of the darkness.

They reached and entered the library, which was still a mess. Spike immediately began cleaning up, but Twilight stopped him. "You've already done enough for today, Spike. We can do this." The baby dragon nodded, clearly glad that he could have a rest.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie grabbed brooms to sweep up the broken glass while the other three cleaned up the books. "What did the Mayor say at Town Hall?" Twilight inquired as she directed _History of Equestria _to its rightful place.

"She was mostly trying to tell everyone to stay calm and maintain order," Rarity replied. "Everypony wasn't having it, though."

Fluttershy slid a book in between two others. "I could feel how rowdy they were. The poor Mayor, no pony was listening to her!"

"That's 'cause what she's asking fer is impossible," Applejack said. "How is anypony supposed to stay calm with that thing in the sky?"

"Oh! What thing? Is it a bird? A cloud?" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down as she rattled off guesses. "Maybe it's Rainbow Dash! Is it Rainbow Dash?"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight remembered. Pinkie misinterpreted this as confirmation that her guess was right. She cheered, but Twilight's mood was as serious as can be. "Have you heard any news about her?"

Rarity shook her head. "We haven't heard anything from the rest of Equestria. I do hope she's all right."

Twilight sighed. "So do I, Rarity."

Once they had finished cleaning up the books and glass, Twilight got some cloth from the basement which was used to cover up the gaping holes that were once windows. "If you girls want, you can all stay here for the night," she offered.

Applejack yawned. "That sounds good, Twi. I'm mighty exhausted."

A few minutes later, they were all tucked in. A chorus of "Good night" filled the library. Twilight turned off the lights, crawled into her bed, and shut her eyes. Sleep claimed her in no time, but not before a thought drifted into her mind.

Her friends couldn't stay for the night. How could they, when there was only dusk?


End file.
